


Interlude: Of Recovery and Sleepytime Tea

by Des98



Series: Into the Silence Verse [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: By force if necessary, Fluff, Gen, Injured Zuko, Let Zuko Rest 100AG, Non-consensual use of blanket-burritoing, Uncle Iroh being an overprotective mother goosehen, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Zuko needs to chill and recover, and lbr it's probably necessary, more 'take your damn medicine!', mute Zuko, there's drugging but i wouldn't call it non-consensual, to force one angsty boi, to take a goddamn break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:01:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25174300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Des98/pseuds/Des98
Summary: Zuko is going to rest whether he likes it or not.  Uncle is just glad his boy is alive to be cranky about it.  Katara agrees with him.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Into the Silence Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820716
Comments: 8
Kudos: 337





	Interlude: Of Recovery and Sleepytime Tea

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Silence](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24841747) by [Electrons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Electrons/pseuds/Electrons). 



Zuko wanted to tell his Uncle that he didn’t need to be babied, that it was just a little lightning, but his arms were too tightly wrapped in the pile of blankets Uncle had tucked him in with while he was asleep and couldn’t argue. Short of shifting into his newfound dragon form and breaking all the furniture in the room in the process, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

He figured his glare was getting the point across admirably, though.

“Look, Nephew! I have brought you tea and soup,” the old man declared, wearing a jovial smile to hide his worry as he entered the room carrying a tray after having been forced by Katara to take a break from anxiously pacing by Zuko’s bedside to go eat something himself. Behind him, a servant hovered nervously, trying to get Iroh to give them the tray as Uncle cheerfully avoided any attempts by the staff to do their jobs.

Zuko attempted to free his arms to take the cup from his Uncle, but Uncle ‘tsked’ at him.

“You are still recovering and should not be moving, Prince Zuko. I will help you.”

Zuko thought that his scowl very clearly said _Uncle, I am the future fire lord and I can feed myself!_ Uncle was apparently pretending that it said _Thank you, Uncle, that would be wonderful!_

Uncle proffered the teacup under Zuko’s nose with a loving smile and pleading eyes. Zuko grudgingly opened his mouth and let his Uncle gently tip a sip of tea in. He swallowed, blinked, and glared again.

“What a good Nephew I have, letting his poor old Uncle look after him,” Uncle praised, pushing Zuko’s growing hair off of his forehead and bringing a spoonful of soup to Zuko’s mouth.

Zuko blinked again and his face settled into an expression reminiscent of a disgruntled cat-owl. Iroh knew that he meant it to be fierce and intimidating, but really it was just adorable. Nevertheless, he ate the soup.

Iroh hummed ‘Leaves from the Vine’ under his breath as he continued to dote on his nephew, who was still too tired to make any actual attempts at fending off his attention. He was excruciatingly aware that without Master Katara’s healing abilities, he likely wouldn’t have Zuko here in front of him, grumpily ceding to his mother goosehenning.

“No, Nephew,” he gently scolded the teen, whose eyes were wandering towards a pile of official paperwork on the desk across the room. Iroh resolved to move it elsewhere at the first available opportunity. “You must take this time to rest and heal completely before you worry about working. Everything will be taken care of until you are in better shape.”

Zuko pouted, then brightened as Katara and Sokka (whose leg was fully healed by now, the lucky bastard) entered the room.

“Hey buddy,” Sokka enthused. “I see you’re as chipper as ever.”

Zuko stuck his tongue out at him and rolled his good eye.

“Sounds like it’s time for a healing session,” Katara declared, striding purposely over to the bed and blessedly freeing Zuko from his blanket prison.

“Help me!” he signed as soon as his hands were free, motioning at Uncle, who immediately pushed his hands gently back down to the bed.

“Lie still, Nephew, so that Master Katara can help you,” he chided.

“Could we have a little privacy?” Katara asked, not unkindly. “It would make it easier to work.” In all honesty, it wouldn’t make any difference to her, but the last time she’d changed the bandages with Iroh there, Toph said that his heartbeat had shot up so fast that she was surprised the old man had stayed on his feet. It was clearly too hard for him to look at the wound, so she made use of a little white lie to make the process a little easier on everyone.

“Of course, my dear,” he acquiesced. “I will go get us more tea and return shortly.”

“He’s _smothering_ me.” Zuko did not whine, because he was the future fire lord and fire lords did _not_ whine. His facial expression was merely minorly disgruntled, was all. Anyone who might say that that made the statement _look_ whiney simply were not proficient enough in sign language to distinguish the very obvious differences.

“He just cares about you, is all. He was so worried. I thought we were going to have to tie him down and sedate him while you were unconscious, he was so scared.”

“Wasn’t unconscious,” Zuko grumbled. “Just sleeping.”

“I’m gonna go ahead and let you think that,” Katara’s tone was fondly patronizing as she patted him on the arm and coated the other hand in glowing water.

“Hmm, it’s looking better, and your heartbeat is getting stronger and more regular, finally. I’d say about two more weeks and you’ll be ready to be cleared for _light_ duty.” Zuko thought the amount of emphasis she put on the word ‘light’ was excessive. Then all of what she said caught up to his mind, which was mildly groggy due to the pain-reliever that he realized Uncle must have slipped into his tea.

 _“Two weeks?”_ he signed, frantic. “But I have so much work to do!”

“It can wait,” she scolded. “And it _will.”_

Zuko wanted to work; Katara wanted him to rest. Unstoppable force, meet immovable object.

Neither the unstoppable force nor the immovable object took into account the unstoppable force’s Uncle and his complete willingness to drug the unstoppable force’s tea with sleeping aids so that the unstoppable force spent more time asleep than awake the next two weeks.


End file.
